2389: Watershed
by Emperor K. Rool
Summary: The Borg have been destroyed, and the Dominion is at peace with the Federation. All seems well...but the Voth have finally accepted Earth as their ancient homeworld. One Voth desperately wants Earth's two sentient species to live in peace, but the Ministry of Elders have more militant plans, as does Section 31. A new era is coming whether the galaxy wants it or not.
1. Prologue

I would like to state that I'm a Christian and I have spent time as a young earth creationist, old earth creationist, theistic evolutionist, unwilling atheist, to again believing parts of the Bible (the seven critically accepted works of Paul which led me back to Christian theism), to again believing every word of the Bible (I don't expect the events that led me to this conclusion to be convincing to anyone else unless the same thing happens to them). This is a Trek fic, so I'm using the understanding of deep time and evolution as accepted by mainstream science.

**-2378 Voth City Ship_**

Forra Gegen was nervous to say the least. The last time he had been summoned before the Ministry of Elders, he had been reassigned to metallurgy. His decision to retract his Distant Origin Theory of Voth origins had been the most disappointing moment in his life. Of course, the alternative would have been to condemn the crew of _Voyager_ and himself to a penal colony.

He did not know what could bring what the elders could want with him now. All the Ministry's usual members were there. In the center sat Minister Odala. Gegan knew that he'd convinced her of the truth, but that she had simply not liked it. For the Voth Empire to justify its rulership over vast swathes of what the humans called the Delta Quadrant they had to maintain the fiction that their species was the first to evolve sentience in this region of space. The idea that they had evolved in the Alpha Quadrant meant that they were immigrants, homeless—weak in her view.

"Do you know why you have been summoned here, Professor Gegen?"

Of course not. He had an undistinguished career in micro-mettalurgy.

"None, Your Honors. I'm confused as to why I am here."

"Have you been keeping up with current events?"

The only major news lately was the sudden disappearance of the Borg. The Borg Unicomplex, which housed the Queen had and was in a manner of speaking, the collective's central nervous system, had exploded; a Borg transwarp hub inside a nebula at the edge of explored space exploded, and all active vessels throughout known space had either exploded are gone off line. The Borg were the Voth's only major enemy. Keeping up with a composite species that had the technical knowledge of thousands of worlds was difficult, but the Voth had the advantage of sixty-five million years of technical advancement. The Borg had only been around for ten thousand. So far, they had failed to assimilate the Voth's personal phasic cloaking device, though they had assimilated a number of Voth as drones. With the Borg gone, the Ministry of Elders were masters of all they surveyed.

"I take it that Her Honor is referring to the Borg?"

"No," Odala surprised him, "I mean your mammals."

Gegen let that sentence sink in. This was the first he'd heard of _Voyager _in four years. He had done what the Ministry wanted, handed over all his research on the Distant Origin theory. What did the Ministry want now?

"Our probes have confirmed that a Federation shuttle with a cloaking device was at the Borg Unicomplex for three hours before it exploded. The same vessel that we detained, _USS Voyager,_ entered the nebula only minutes before the Borg Transwarp Hub was destroyed. I'm afraid we have a new enemy…one more dangerous than the Borg."

A new enemy? Ridiculous! Gegen believed that he knew _Voyager_'s first officer, Chakotay, better than that. According to the human all his people wanted was to return home.

"You are our expert on these creatures. Your former occupation is to be restored to you."

Gegen stood mouth agape.

One of the male elders inclined his head in Gegen's direction.

"We are convinced by your scientific findings, but we could not accept them for political reasons. Now circumstances have changed."

Now Gegen understood perfectly why he was here.

"I won't help you. They are not our enemies."

"They aren't? I have thetestimony of your asistant Tova Veer that the crew of _Voyager_ tortured him and performed medical experiments on him?"

Gegen paused for a minute. Could what they said have been true? He and Tova had abducted Voyager's First Officer so the humans had a right to be hostile, but he couldn't picture them ordinaraly as sadists if Chakotay was typical of the species.

"The humans want to destroy us and will succeed, unless we destroy them first. They have likely gained technology from the Borg, so we must depened upon cunning and guile."

Odala had slipped up there, Gegen noticed.

"Not all of_ Voyager_'s crew was human though."

"They were all mammals."

So? Gegen thought. Mammalian races were much more common than Saurian ones.

"And the vast majority were humans."

Gegen could not think of a comeback to that. _Voyager_ was Federation vessel and the Federation was supposed to be comprised of 150 different spiecies, yet most of its crew was human.

Odala had been remaking on that fact citing Captain Janeway herself about the number of species in the Federation. "At least we admit we are an empire. The United Federation of Planets is nothing more than a misleading name for the Human Empire."

Gegan didn't much care what Odala was saying at this point.

"If you're new Doctrine is that humans must die, I don't want my old job back."

Odala was thinking on her feet here, Gegan could tell.

"Our new Doctrine is that humans must be subjugated. Of course we should destroy them if they pose an existential threat to us, but we are civilized. I spoke in fear earlier. But I assure you those fears have a basis in fact."

That was a step better, but not enough.

"And if humans prove to be nonthreatening in any way?"

"The evidence to date suggests otherwise."

This much was clear: Distant Origin had been accepted; brotherhood with humans had not. Gegen respectfully told the Ministry he could be of no use to them, and stormed out. Of course he knew they still had Veer.

* * *

Tova Veer had remained in the Circle of Archaeology following his mentor's disgrace. He had been notified by the Ministry of Elders that his expertise would be needed. He was quite surprised to learn of the humans' role in the destruction of the Borg. He was unsurpriesed that, in light of the new evidence, the Ministry of Elders had changed position on Distant Origin. He was also unsurprised that Professor Gegen did not want his old job back, now that humans were considered enemies. He could predict that, some time before he went to bed, his old mentor would be stopping by his quarters.

He sat at a console, rereading declassified notes that he had once written on Voyager and its crew. A chime at the door, did not break his concentration.

"Enter," he said.

As he suspected, it was Professor Gegen.

"How may I help you, Professor?"

"Veer,"he said warmly, but there was a twinge of concern in his voice.

Veer gestured for him to take a seat on the sofa while he walked to the replicator.

"Is there anything you'd like?" Veer asked.

"I'm neither hungry nor thirsty."

Veer nodded and, upon realizing that he was neither hungry or thirsty either, took a seat beside Gegen.

"Distant Origin is finaly accepted. You'd think I would be celebrating."

"With all due respect, Professor, I don't see why you're not."

"The Ministry of Elders wants to subjugate the humans."

That was the response that Veer was expecting and yet could not understand.

"If they evolved on our true homeworld and stayed, whereas we left, and they could destroy the Borg collective despite having inferior technology to our own…to leave them unconquered proves we are inferior life forms."

"But they don't seek to subjugate us," Gegen said. Then he asked Veer, "Is it true what you said, that they perfomed medical experiments on you?"

Veer's skin blushed yellow in agitation. "I did _not_ say they conducted medical experiments on me; I said they _might_ have!" Then Veer turned away from Gegen, ashamed. "I panicked and went into hibernation."

"They were explorers who were as curios about us as we were about them. Need I remind you, it was we who secretly boarded their vessel, not the other way around." Gegen tried to put his open palm on Veer's shoulder, but the younger Voth pushed him away.

"The fact remains, Gegen, that they stayed on Earth. They endured. They defeated the Borg. We didn't. Whether they are peaceful or not isn't the issue. The issue is how they refelect on us."

Gegen could here the Ministry of Elders and the shadow of Doctrine in Gegen's voice. They had accepted the new paradigm as truth, but still viewed themselves through the lense of the that view the humans were the survivors who stood their ground. The Voth were the cowards who fled Earth in terror. It was a view of themselves that made Voth ashamed to be Voth.

"How do they reflect on us? We have a far older culture, our brains are twenty-two precent larger…"

"And what have we done with those advantages?" Veer said. "We've done nothing! Nothing!"

"I know of no other species to reach our great age. We've survived, which is more than nothing."

Veer snarled. "Don't you understand?" He stood up angrily. "We are weak, and the humans are strong." He turned and pointed at Gegen. "The only way to make value for our selves is to reclaim our homeworld from the humans. Our entire worth as a species depends upon it."

"How would you purpose conquering an enemy that has destroyed the Borg?" Gegen asked.

"The Ministry of Elders has already ruled out a direct military atack. We are to aproach them peacefully…and secretly aproach their enemies."

Gegen shook his head. Why did the Voth always have to be this way: measuring their civilization against others and finding that they could not measure up to their own arbitrary standards unless they conquered the other civilization?

"You once supported my research. Why have you become so anti-human?"

"So that I can be pro-Voth."

Gegen scoffed, "That's the Ministry talking. Why do you want to conquer the humans?"

"Because,frankly, Professor, what they did to the Borg scares me. The probes that linked them to to the Borg's distruction indicated high levels of tachyons on this ships. That small shuttle was more advanced than anything we scaned on _Voyager_!"

Gegan paused for a moment, weing what Veer had just said. "Time travel?"

"Time travel," Veer said icily. "If they have technology from the future they could be a threat to the entire galaxy."

Gegen finally felt a chill settle in his bones. He could clearly see the danger such technology could present to the galaxy.

"It appears to have been designed specifically for combat with the Borg. It's not much more sophisticated than our own technology."

Gegen put his hands on his knees. A million rationalizations raced through his head. _Voyager_ was stranded in what the humans called the Delta Quadrant. The humans of the future might have been in some conflict with the Borg, and needed Voyager for some reason…yes,yes, that was it. Still the fact that humans had such weapons troubled him. Gegen would prefer friendship to confrontation, but he would be a fool to not recognize the possible threat.

"I think I may have been hasty in declining the Ministry's proposal."

"It's not to late to approach them. We need every expert on humanity we can get."

In that, Gegan agreed with Veer completely. His personal experiences might go part of the way to teach Voth that humans were not the souless monsters as which propaganda might decide on depicting them. So far, according to Veer, the Ministry wanted learn more about the balance of power in this "Alpha Quadrant." Things might never come to war. Gegen sincerely hoped that they never would.


	2. Earth 2380

**I'm aware that dinosaurs were most likely endothermic, and the Voth were established as ectotherms. Distant Origin was in 1997. I'll present the Voth as endotherms if it ever comes up. Leyton calls Cardassians reptilian in this chapter and he's partially right—they have scales and don't tolerate the cold—but later when the Voth describe them they'll look at the fact that they have hair and can crossbreed with mammals as signs that they're mammalian. I don't think earth distinctions necessarily apply on Cardassia. Gegen's musings in this chapter are similar to views I once held, but I'm now more like his description of Bajorans. The Voth are actually from Earth in this story but I needed to give Gegen a moment to doubt for said musings.**

**_2380, January, Paris, France, Europe, Earth_**

"In light of recent events regarding the Borg, we have declassified Professor Gegen's research on humanity and found that he was, in fact, correct. Voth and humans share a common origin. We underestimated you and wish to apologize. We have now entered the Alpha Quadrant to greet you as kinsfolk long separated."

"Computer, freeze," President Bacco called out. The image on her personal computer terminal froze. The Starfleet Admirals Janeway and Leyton were there to discuss the potential cultural exchange/security risk of formal first contact with the Voth with her.

"Admiral Janeway, you spent seven years in the Delta Quadrant. You know more about the Voth than anyone except your former first officer."

"My experience with them was very brief. Their City Ship transported Voyager inside and took control over all of our computer functions. It was only when the individual who first postulated the idea that we may be related retracted his theory, that they let us go."

The President leaned back in her chair. Janeway nodded and continued, "I had no idea that the neurolytic virus would destroy the entire Collective," Janeway paused realizing what she just said. "We've changed the face of the whole Delta Quadrant. Being related to us might not be so bad in the Voth's eyes now." Janeway addressed the president again, "Naturally we should maintain high security around Starfleet Headquarters, and your office, Mrs. President, and the Federation Council, but I see no reason to refuse a peaceful envoy from visiting any of these places. Earth is, after all, their planet too."

Leyton cleared his throat. Everyone in Starfleet was suspicious of Leyton. He was thought to have attempted a military take-over of the Federation, but later DNA analysis revealed that Admiral Leyton to be a Changeling infiltrator. Still, there were many who believed that it had been the real Leyton, who had lead that coup. He had briefly resigned his commission, after all. "With all due respect to Fleet Admiral Janeway, we can't afford to let sentiment affect our judgment. Destroying the Borg Collective is the single greatest thing we ever did for this galaxy. The Voth should naturally want to learn about us and become more like us. But we shouldn't pretend that they have some special connection with earth. They planet they came from was destroyed by an asteroid sixty-five million years ago. This planet as it exists today is alien to them. If they want to become Federation members there is a process they can go through."

"There is no indication on the Voth's part that they are seeking Federation Membership, though I think that's more likely now than when I first met them. But this is the planet of their origin. They should be allowed to visit and study here. Klingons and Ferengi are not Federation citizens, but they come here all the time," Janeway said.

President Bacco remained silent. She knew she was in for a debate when she summoned both Janeway and Leyton here. For all that Starfleet was not primarily a military institution, its admirals could be downright belligerent when it came to their opinions.

"Klingons and Ferengi, and even the Romulans are like us. The four founding species of the Federation were us and three others like us: the Vulcans, Andorians and Tellerites. We have warrior and profiteering traditions in our past. Let me tell you who the Voth are like with their Ministry of Elders—they are like those Cardassian butchers with their Obsidian Order and Central Command!"

Janeway and Bacco both stared at Leyton. His attitudes toward the Cardassians were no secret. His only son had been killed in the Federation's first war with the Cardassians. His wife blamed him because he had encouraged their son to go to the academy. His hatred of Cardassians was personal and understandable if a bit bigoted. His comparing the Voth to the Cardassians came right out of left field to use an idiom from the president's homeworld. Janeway asked the full admiral to his face and received a very unsettling answer.

"Most planets we know of have similar biological histories. Mammalian dominance came after reptilian. But reptilian dominance never ended on Cardassia, Gornar, The Hirogen home world, or the Jem'Hadar homeworld if the Dominion upgraded them from lower life forms as they did with the Vorta. The Voth are Earth's reptilian past come to visit. Our evolution was only possible because they left. We are blood enemies."

"I may not have been here when we fought the Dominion, but unless I misread something, the Jem'Hadar are aggressive because of genetic manipulation by the Founders. I met some Hirogen who were not so different from us—wanting more out of life than the hunt. The President is from Cestus III. I think she can say a thing or two about the Gorn. I won't deny what you said about the Cardassians, but their culture is not that dissimilar to the Romulans, who are as mammalian as the Vulcans."

"Just remember, even with the new technology you've brought from the Delta Quadrant, the Voth have had millions of years to enhance theirs."

Bacco was about to make a statement when Janeway almost took the thought word for word from her mouth: "I have a healthy fear and respect for Voth technology, but they are not threatening to use it against us. The Federation doesn't start wars. Starfleet seeks out new life. I want to make sure we're as ready to win a war with the Voth as you do, but I'd rather live in peace with them and exchange ideas with them. That's what they seem to be offering us."

Bacco rose to her feet and declared, "I'm forced to agree with Fleet Admiral Janeway."

_**January 2380, Bozeman, Montana, North America, Earth_**_

_Things are going pretty well so far_, Gegen told himself. The Minister of Denfese, Tal Haius, had secured approval for Voth delegations to visit Earth. Minister Haius was dividing most of his time between the Presidential Residence in Paris and Starfleet Command in San Francisco. The name of the second city was easier for the Voth to pronounce. In their own language, most plosives sounded like clicks, while fricatives sounded much the same as they did in English. At Starfleet Command, Minister Haius gave Starfleet information about the Voth's neighbors in the Delta Quadrant. Voyager had spent seven years in the Delta Quadrant following a mostly straight path with several jumps on the orders of thousands of light years. The Voth had fully explored that area of space and were willing to trade this information in exchange for Starfleet's maps of the Alpha Quadrant. Some Admiral named Leyton or something objected that the Klingons should notified, but the other admirals assured him they would be.

It surprised Gegen to discover that this territory the Voyager crew called "The Alpha Quadrant" was actually the area of Federation explored space around the border between of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. The official dividing line ran right through Earth's solar system. Being the center of the Federation made the humans think they were the center of the galaxy. Such arrogance was something Gegen expected from the Voth. _It must run in the family_, Gegen mused.

Haius could discuss interstellar politics with the Starfleet; Gegen was a paleontologist. He was interested in his relatives, the dinosaurs. That was why he was here at the Museum of the Rockies. Not being near a major political center, it survived Earth's Third World War. Its dinosaur section had been enlarged over the centuries with more fossilized skeletons, and now had holographic overlays showing the dinosaurs as they would have appeared when they lived. Gegen saw the skeleton of a_ Parasaurolophus walkeri_, a crested member of the same hadrosaur group as the Voth. He walked over to the control panel and switched on the holographic overlay. He was impressed with what he saw, and disappointed with what he read. This dinosaur had been found all over the Rocky Mountain chain in the last few centuries. In regards to parasaurolophus there was little work left for Voth paleontologists to do. There was still the dream of finding ancient Voth fossils somewhere on Earth. The true goal of his work might be buried under volcanic ash or the sea bed. The City Ship only held a few million Voth. That was why so much of their earliest recorded history was about establishing colonies.

Gegen expected the search for Voth remains to continue for some time, possibly beyond his lifespan, but he had faith that this was the right planet. His DNA scans revealed forty markers in common with the humans, and an even higher number in earth reptiles, and highest of all, in earth birds. That the patterns were there was fact. That they conclusively proved the Voth came from this planet was not. Gegen had to admit that however small the leap was, and however well supported his claim was, he was making an appeal to absolute certainty. That required faith. Science and religion had not had the clashes in Voth History that they had had in human history—unless politics was involved. Gegen's charge of heresy still stung him. None of the gods in the vast Voth pantheon had been challenged to exist, only the Voth's right to rule what Gegen was already thinking of as the Delta Quadrant. Voth, science, religion and philosophy all went hand in hand. The quest to find one Supreme God drove the Voth efforts to find a grand unified theory for everything. The idea that matter or energy is never created or destroyed fueled the Voth's belief in the immortality of the soul, and their concepts of reincarnation. What disturbed Gegen was what he had learned about the Bajoran faith, and how it had a way of nearly always being literally true. Of course, choosing to believe that the Prophets were gods and not simply aliens from a different time dimension required a leap of faith too.

Gegan did see other dinosaurs, besides the parasaurolophus, that looked more familiar to him: the feathered and fanged utahraptor matched the Voth mythical beast the _neksáviz_, the ancient emblem of Voth monarchs in the period before the Ministry of Elders. The tall and imposing _Tyrannosaurus rex_, the utahraptor, and the three horned herbivorous quadruped triceratops had the largest fanbases among the humans who appeared to be dinosaur enthusiasts. Gegan was quiet surprised that these extinct beings like him had more museums and exhibits than prehistoric mammals did. Gegan caught himself. Such mammals like the mastodon and saber tooth cat were only prehistoric from the human perspective. The Voth already had written and visually documented history at that time. Still many of these creatures were large and intimidating. Why hadn't they captured human imagination the way the dinosaurs had? Gegen was sure that had the situation been reversed the Voth would never have their minds as awestruck at giant mammals as the humans did at giant saurians.

Veer approached from behind.

"It will be time to return to the command ship soon, professor."

"I know that Veer. I just want to muse for a few moments. Do you see how interested in our extinct cousins the humans are?"

Veer looked, saw a human boy and his father posing for a holophoto in front of the…what was it called…utahraptor?

"Yes, they seem interested."

"Did you know that when they still made films on this planet, there were more about dinosaurs than large mammals of pre-human history."

Veer's mouth dropped. "_When _they had films? Why would any species willingly give up an art form? That would justify an invasion on cultural grounds alone!" Veer laughed, "We need to save these poor mammals from themselves!"


	3. Romulus 2380

**Starfleet Headquarters, San Fransisco, California, North America, Earth, January 2380**

_This exactly the way the Cardies took over Bajor, and it's like Ben's report of the neural trick the Founders played on him: alliance with us, war with the Romulans_…James Leyton thought. He eyed the Voth Minister of Defense from across the table. He hadn't bothered to learn his name since he could just refer to him as "Mr. Minister."

The room was grey, the table clear, and the chairs silver with red cushioning. The room was not particularly conducive to any feeling. James had brought his feelings with him. This was the first test to see what the Voth would do, and how much an alliance with them would cost. They could apply for Federation Membership, or they could simply offer an alliance. Either alternative would constitute a fundamental shift in the balance of power in the quadrant.

The Federation was about to sign a new peace treaty with the Romulans that would abolish the Neutral Zone. For the first time in recorded history, the three major powers of the Beta Quadrant: The Federation, Klingon Empire, and Romulan Star Empire were about to be were about to be at peace at the same time. The Federation already had technology exchange treaties in effect with the Klingons, and in light of the recent events involving praetor Shinzon, the Romulans believed that they earned the Federation's trust. The Voth threw the whole question of technology exchange open again. Their cloaking devices were superior to the ones that the Klingons and Romulans used in every way. Their ability to hack into the command functions of an alien ship's computer and beam through shields was frightening. Add that to the fact that even without the Voth, a Federation ship had destroyed the Borg, James could understand his allies' fears. Since the Voth had appeared earlier that month, many Romulans and even some Klingons had expressed fears that the humans and Voth would unite, reducing Romulus and Qonos to satellite states. The preexisting treaty between the Federation and the Romulans allowed for the Federation to use its cloaking device in the Gamma Quadrant alone. James knew that Ben had broken that rule several times, but since the end of the Dominion War no one had brought it up. However, if the Voth surrendered their sovereignty, the Federation could make any treaty with the Romulans it wanted—even share Voth technology.

"To be frank, Mr. Minister, entering a treaty with you would put us in a difficult position with our other allies," James said.

"I have spent the last seven days reading about the Federation's treaties with the Klingon and Romulan Empires. It is not the intention of the Voth Empire to stir up conflict in the Alpha Quadrant. Any technology we share with you, we would also share with your allies."

_You're clever, Mr. Minister, but not _that_ clever_, James thought.

"If you form a separate treaty with the Romulans there's no way for us to ensure that you'd give them the same quality of Technology you gave us."

"With all due respect Admiral Leyton, we may have threatened you in the past, but we have always honored our word. If I understand your quadrant's history, the Romulans came from Vulcan, just as the Voth came from Earth. Both our homeworlds are founding members of the Federation. Maybe we should invite the Romulans to be a third party to any treaty we make. You may also want to invite the Klingons."

_Did he just compare our relationship to the Voth to the Vulcans' with the Romulans?_

Straining to keep his indignity hidden, James said, "Those two histories are entirely different. You left sixty-five million years ago. Scurrying rodents and giant lizards do not know their related. The Romulans left Vulcan during recorded history. They have always known that they were the same species."

"The Romulans, yes, but the Vulcans did not know until just over a century ago, at which time, they were enemies."

"They were still the same species!" James said with slight irritation in his voice. "Shouldn't you be trying to share technology with your fellow reptiles: the Gorn and the Cardassians?"

Everyone, Starfleet and Voth alike, stared at James.

"Admiral," Janeway began to say, but James cut her off.

"I'm the senior officer here, Fleet Admiral," he said. He then turned to the Voth Defense Minister. "There are reptilian species in the Federation, but as members, the Federation Council has the final say on what technology they share."

Janeway could see the Minister Haius's scales darken as he was growing visibly insulted.

"Admiral, perhaps four way negotiations would be best."

_You're too much of an idealist, Kathryn. These talks have to fail. They think our homeworld is theirs and will do anything to get it. If I can't derail these talks with logic, I'll use paranoia. _

"Just as an alliance with us would destabilize the quadrant so would a Voth-Romulan alliance."  
"I cannot follow you, Admiral Leyton. We at first did not know that regional balances of power mattered to you. Now when we offer to share our technology with you and your neighbors you accuse us of plotting your downfall. It would seem that you simply do not want us as your ally."

James smiled inwardly. Outwardly his face was stoic. Everything was going as he had hoped.

"We don't trust you. After our experiences with Cardassia and the Dominion, our trust is something that must be earned."

"Admiral, you are making this treaty too one-sided to engender trust," Janeway said.

_Then I'm doing my job_, James thought.

The Voth Minister of Defense got up, and said in an even voice, "It is unfortunate Admiral that you are being so difficult to agree with. We could offer a lot to you, and you to us, if formal relations were established. Maybe if you viewed us as Voth, like we are, and not Cardassians who are more like you than they are like us…" He looked at Janeway and spoke to her, "Perhaps, in the future…." His diplomatic mask was still in place, but James got the gist: _when you outrank him_.

**Voth Warship, Romulan Space, One Month Later**

"Section 31, Starfleet's intelligence network, which does not officially exist, will learn of this meeting, if they do not know of it already," Tal Haius said.

The meeting was held in his flagship's conference room. The room was small consisting of navy blue walls and shiny black conference table, almost liquid to the eye. Haius sat at one end of the table with six other Voth. Admiral Sela sat directly across from him. Three Romulan commanders were with her and so were three high-ranking Tal'Shiar members.

"What you are proposing, Minister Haius is risky," the blonde Human-Romulan hybrid said. "If the Federation has technology that can allow them to travel to the future, then they are clearly a threat to our own security. However, I see here on your part nothing more than Voth self-interest. Normally the Romulan Government would turn you down. However—"

"The Tal'shiar's diagnostics of the latest Federation prototype ships reveal ablative shield generators and transphasic torpedoes?" Haius asked.

Sela felt a chill when she heard him name the exact systems that gave the Romulans cause for concern. She tried to keep her diplomatic mask on, but she couldn't get around the fact that he was right.

"You are correct. Those systems do concern us, but they do not constitute proof that the Federation has mastered time travel," Jarok, a Tal'shiar officer and distant relative of the famous Admiral unknowingly tricked into treason said. "Their mutual threat to us, however they came to acquire them, is what we are here to discuss."

Sela was not so quick to dismiss the implications of time travel. In an alternate timeline Jean-Luc Picard had sent her mother back in time on the Enterprise-C. If she had not been there, Sela would never have been born. If the Federation had a way of acquiring new technology from the future, they needed to be stopped.

"You know that the Federation rejected making a treaty with us, when we offered to share our technology with them. All we asked in return was the right to visit the planet of our birth."

"I'm aware that you also offered to share the same technology with ourselves and the Klingons," Sela said,"…to maintain the balance of power in this quadrant."

"The humans were the first species we knew from the Alpha Quadrant. When we learned of yourselves and the Klingons, and of the history between the three of you, this gave us pause." Haius stood up and walked to the replicator. "Computer, fourteen glasses of _Kali-fal_."

A tray materialized with fourteen small glasses of the Romulan beverage. Haius picked it up and walked toward the Romulans first handing out seven glasses as spoke.

"Naturally, we did not wish to create difficulties in their established treaty with the Klingon Empire, or hinder the process of making a new treaty with you." Noticing that the Romulans had taken this liquid reminder of home, he brought the tray over to his own side of the table for the Voth to taste this exotic delicacy.

"Do you know what Admiral Leyton's reply was when we offered to share our technology with the Klingons and the Romulans?" He gave the Romulans a few moments to answer as he took his seat and a sip of _Kali-fal_. He could tell by the smell alone that he would find it disgusting, but he and his subordinates wanted the Romulans to think they loved it. He brought the glass to his lips and down the disgusting liquid went.

"He refused to begin four-way negotiations involving all of us," Sela said.

"More or less," Haius gave a brief pause and said, "Leyton said he didn't trust us. But this was to be a four way treaty. The subject was technology exchange. We can copy ablative shielding and transphasic torpedoes in a few years, but we are no match for the Federation now. Neither are the Klingons. Neither are you. Together, however, Voth and Romulan technology might be enough to challenge them. They don't trust the two of us becoming allies."

Sela smiled, "While that remains the most likely explanation, there is an alternative you are deliberately avoiding."

Sela had just given Haius the opening he'd been waiting for. "I avoid nothing! You know that _Voyager _encountered and made record of our City Ship's technology. Shield piercing transporters, enemy computer access, transphasic cloaking, individual transphasic cloaking! We know that you know all of these and there is no other non-biological weapon we can add to our list! You're welcome to come to the Delta Quadrant and see for yourself! Ah the one thing I forgot, we have transwarp! If you think we would try to acquire your best technical achievements and offer shams in return, you should think again!"

Sela dropped her smile and said, "I agree. Starfleet would never have been hesitant about you 'altering the balance of power in this quadrant if they did not believe you were serious. They suspected what I suspect: you want Earth."

"I do not deny that I would like to return to the world of my ancestors. But for a minute consider the Federation and yourselves: they do not trust the Romulan Star Empire; they only really trust the Klingons because their puppet Chancellor, Martok, is in power. The Federation also possesses a certain planet that is the Romulans' ancient home: Vulcan. They have you outgunned and will force a treaty on you that is entirely on their terms." Then, as if sensing Sela's next thought, Haius said, "Don't worry, we'd don't want a war with the Federation. Not yet, anyway. We want a counter weight against them."

"As does the Tal'shiar," Jarok said. "We must discuss this with the Praetor, but an adequate test of our alliance should be your helping us adapt our ships to transwarp slipstream technology and seeing how the Federation responds." Jarok looked to Sela, "Does the military concur?"

Sela did not know what to make of the Voth, but she agreed that an all-powerful, unchallenged Federation was in no one's interest.

"The military concurs."


	4. QonoS 2380

**Qo'noS Late 2380**

_Klingon Architecture is certainly…unusual_, Tal Haius thought as he looked at the open area between himself and Chancellor Martok. The upper wall was supported by slanted columns. The red light that hung from the ceiling was surrounded by a screen with cylindrical metal bars protruding noticeably above the screen and below. In the section of the chamber above Martok's chair there were slanted openings in the wall. Beneath them a ledge ending in jagged angles ran all the way back to the hall's entrance way. But the architecture was less important than the man, the one eyed Klingon Chancellor who now addressed him.

"So, Defense Minister Tal Haius of the Voth Empire," Martok began saying slowly and deeply, "Ally of Romulus. What business brings you to the capital of the Klingon Empire?"

In the course of one year Haius had set up Voth embassies on Romulus, Gornar, Breen, Tholia, and Tzenketh. Technicians from the Circle of Quantum Mechanics were already helping these civilizations develop transwarp slipstream devices for their ships' engines.

The Federation had been disturbed by this network of alliances that the Voth had made, and naturally as Federation allies, so had the Klingons.

"I am here to warn of you of a potential threat to the Klingon Empire's existence," Haius said. He turned his eyes from the Chancellor and looked at every member of the council. "I am sure by the very fact that we are having this discussion that you know of the starship _Voyager_? They've destroyed the Borg Collective and made the galaxy a safer place for that."

Loud cheers erupted.

"However, they have unleashed a force upon the Beta Quadrant, a force dedicated to your utter destruction. In the Delta Quadrant the _Voyager_ crew encountered an enemy that prides itself on its ability to kill the galaxy's deadliest prey. We know them and we know that they know about you because we have a lengthy border with their space…they're called the Hirogen. They believe they are the galaxy's ultimate hunters. What other than a Klingon could be their ultimate prey?"

Again there were loud cheers, but Martok silenced everyone with a "Mev yep!"

"I will not allow you to blind us with our own pride toward your ends!"

"I see. You are a coward Martok, one who hides behind the Federation. If the data files I read are correct, the only reason you are chancellor is that a Starfleet officer killed your predecessor and declined the Chancellorship for himself."

That was Martok's greatest flaw in the eyes of the council. He was widely seen as a Federation puppet.

"I cannot lead the Klingon High Council. I'm an alien and I lack a warrior's spirit. That's why we sought out the Federation and then the Romulans. The Hirogen are like you. They will seek you out, and it won't be for an exchange in technology. We can take you to them; let you strike when they are off guard."

A member of the High Council stood up and asked, "What proof do you have that the Hirogen want to harm us?"

Haius smiled. "Computer, download and translate all available files on the Hirogen into the High Council's central computer and into the most common Klingon dialect."

The council member who had asked that question, a dark-skinned and dark haired Klingon of slender frame and average height stormed ought of the room, presumably on the way toward a computer terminal.

"Consider what I've told you of who the Hirogen are, and remember who you yourselves are! You are Klingons! You live for battle and the hunt! But the galaxy can only have one top predator! You live to conquer!" Haius paused making sure his audience caught the full impact of his words. "With the voth traveling here, and your Federation allies still debating whether only recently giving you transwarp, the day when Klingon meets Hirogen is fast approaching!"

The council descended into arguments, with Martok banging his chair and shouting, "Mev Yep!"

He locked his one remaining eye on Haius. "If and when we meet the Hirogen, it will be on our terms, and I don't see why the Voth should be interested one way or another!"

"With all due respect, Chancellor, you do not know them like we do. Ten thousand years ago their ancestors were not nomads and they carved out an empire that covered nearly half the galaxy using our technology and savage conquest. This is all modern history from my people's perspective. The Hirogen themselves have largely forgotten it now, but if their few scientists at that period had been less curious about what went on in other species' heads, the Borg Collective would never have been born!"

There was stunned silence across the room. Even Martok did not know how to respond.

"We can disable their ships, but in hand to hand fighting we are no match for them. Neither are the humans nor the Romulans. That means we either take this issue to you, or I was wrong and my colleagues were right."

"Right about what?" Martok demanded.

"That we should be talking to the Dominion. That Klingons are inferior to the Jem'Hadar. If the files I read are right, the Jem'Hadar took your eye. Did they take your backbone too?" Haius sneered at Martok.

The enraged chancellor got up out of his chair, rushed toward the Voth Defense Minister and head butted him with the result that he landed several feet away. Haius's vision was blurry, and he knew he have to go to sickbay to get treated for a concussion. He could also taste blood in his mouth. His head was killing him but he had succeeded in his mission. This was now a matter of Klingon honor that had to be resolved. Even if Martok did not budge, there were going to be Klingon houses that would answer the Voth's call for war on the Hirogen. Not that the Voth really cared about the contemporary Hirogen one way or another. Keeping the Klingons occupied in the Delta Qudrant while the Voth and their new allies waged war on the Federation was a different matter altogether…

* * *

Later, as Haius was recovering in his quarters, the comm chimed.

"What is it?" Haius asked the Commander on the other side of the channel.

"We have a message from Qonos that does not appear to be from Chancellor Martok but is from the High Council. Should I put it through to your quarters, Minister?"

"Yes, do so."

Haius crawled out of his orange flannel bed and walked to the black chair and desk that were the centerpiece of his quarters. Taking his seat in the chair, never minding the fact that he was still in light blue night wear, he activated the projection device at the table's center. What would have a required a screen on a Federation vessel, materialized as a holographic rectangle at Haius's eye level. Inside the rectangle was the image of the Klingon who had asked for proof of the Hirogen's intentions and then left the room.

"Ah, Council Member…?" Haius gestured for his name.

"Krell Son of Malbek, Minister."

Haius nodded, "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"There are many members of the Council who see Martok just as you described him, a Federation puppet. He is not even from a noble house. The Klingon who defeated our last Chancellor in battle was from a noble house but was also a Starfleet officer."

"Shameful isn't it? When an ally twists your laws to turn you into a puppet state?"

"I am no one's puppet!" Krell shot back.

"Nor do I expect is any real Klingon."

"You may claim not to have a warrior's spirit, but you understand us very well." Krell smiled then starred icily at Haius. "There was a half-Klingon aboard Voyager, and a colony of Klingons in the Delta Quadrant. The Hirogen already know about us. The Federation has been trying to tame us for too long. First, peace with the Romulans, now this!" Krell spat. "We are the galaxy's deadliest warriors! We defeated the Jem'Hadar and we'll defeat the Hirogen too! Can you send us the coordinates of the area's where the Hirogen are known to hunt?"

Haius smiled, and leaned back in his chair. "Computer, send a copy of all our data on sectors where the Hirogen have recently be engaged in hunting to the personal computer of Krell son of Malbek, member of the Klingon High Council."

"Thank you, Defense Minister. There are many noble houses that will seek to begin war with the Hirogen immediately."

"And Martok?"

"High Councils have been known to ignore Chancellors before." Krell's sharp teeth gleamed. "He may not even be Chancellor by the time this war is over."

Haius knew exactly what Krell was implying. Worf had "removed" Gowron from office. Someone could just as easily challenge and kill Martok.

"Being a Klingon Chancellor sounds to me like a dangerous occupation. May the strong survive."

"Qapla'!"

Krell terminated the transmission from his side. Haius got up and went back to bed.

As the Voth Defense Minister lay in bed he pondered Martok's situation and how he could avoid a similar one.

At one time the Voth had had an emperor. A line of unbroken descent ran all the way to Kantor Than sixty-five million years ago connecting all future dynasties to him through one or another of his children. The last Voth Empress, Frolahepa XXI had been overthrown by her distant relatives from collateral imperial lines. They had agreed to leave the imperial throne vacant and divide power between themselves. Thus the Ministry of Elders was hatched. All members of the ministry from that day to this were direct descendants of its first members. Haius knew that in wartime his ministry, Defense, would be the most important. He was the one in charge of building up the Voth's alliances surrounding Federation space, and dangling the Hirogen bait to distract the Klingons. Odala could intimidate her way into running the city-ship in peace time, but ever since the humans were deemed a threat, Haius had imperial power in all but name. He wanted to hold on to that power in peace time after Earth was reconquered and the Federation carved up. He wanted to be Emperor—the Voth who reconquered his people's primordial home.

Since humans would still out-number Voth on Earth, he would probably have to champion human rights. That might present a problem. The humans did not strike him as the type to swallow their pride and admit that they would need help in the new order. And besides, there experience with him would be as a people he conquered. They might turn to other ministers to see that they were treated fairly, though Haius could not see Odala willingly cooperating with mammals, even to increase her own power. He'd have to make fair treatment of the humans his policy from the beginning of the reconquest. Persuade the other Voth that he was the one who best knew how to deal with the mammals. Keep a period of transition going for as long as possible—that way he could command the powers if not hold the title of an emperor.

If there was one thing that reading about the history of Klingon Chancellors had taught him it was that one always had to be on guard for enemies. K'mpec had been poisoned, Gowron had been killed in a duel, and the same fate now likely awaited Martok.

K'mpec and poison…now if Haius accused one of the other Ministers of trying to poison him…but he'd need to be visibly ill, pretend that he trusted everyone first, then create a fake trail leading to Odala…a Voth hero poisoned by the Minister around whom the City Ship revolved… the public would definitely be on his side. The formula to make himself emperor was there…all he had to do was be smart enough to use it correctly.

AN: I know that the Hirogen and the Borg were depicted as being unaware of each other in Voyager season 4, but I have an explanation for that which I think deserves its own fic.


	5. Borg Cooperative 2381

**I realize that Gegen has not been featured in the last two chapters, and he isn't in this one either, but I saw no other way to show what the other great powers of the Alpha Quadrant were doing. I have a credible excuse for bringing Gegen back next chapter.**

**Borg Cooperative, Alpha Quadrant, 2381 **

_No! No! NO!_

Hugh, the unwilling leader of the Cooperative, emerged from his regeneration unit. His first reaction was to look for a section of wall that did not have Borg circuitry running through it. He was a leader. He had responsibilities, like letting the other Borg of this cooperative he'd led for the past eleven years get a good cycle's rest. Upon finding a piece of wall that would not disturb them, he kicked it. Twice. Thrice. And he let out an agonized yell.

"Feeling any better?"

Hugh slowly turned to see Ai. She, like most of the ex-drones had been named by Lore. It was a pun on what Lore wanted to create for the Borg: artificial intelligence. It also made a phonetic play in English with Hugh's name. When Lore found them, Hugh was protecting her like a big brother. She was roughly Hugh's age, though maybe a year or two younger. Like Hugh, she had been assimilated as a young child and spent her formative years in a maturation chamber, only emerging briefly before the Borg on her cube became individualized. The process had been hard on her, but she had actually been one of the cooperative's more…Hugh searched for a nice word…"sane" members. No plating covered her pale bald head and one of her eyes had been removed and a Borg implant that had a red laser point installed in its place. Borg didn't care much for impractical useless things like beauty, but Hugh felt she was beautiful. He had grown attached to her. First he felt the burden of responsibility for tearing someone younger than himself away from the hive mind. Then he began seeking out her mind specifically during regeneration, to make sure she was adjusting. Then she began seeking out Hugh's mind, offering ideas and suggestions that he'd sometimes implement. She sometimes made the mantel of leadership fit more comfortably around Hugh's shoulders.

"Did I wake you?"

"I was listening to your thoughts. You're worried that they'll never be able to function without you."

Hugh sighed, "I don't have the answer to every problem, Ai. If just some of the others would step up and take responsibility into their hands…" Hugh looked back at his regenerating brothers and sisters.

"We are making progress," Ai said.

"I know _you _are Ai, but you're just one Borg."

"I meant _all _of us, Hugh. We're just growing at different rates. You happen to be the fastest, but you're still growing too."

"I'm not that same drone that protected you, AI."

"And I'm not that same drone that needs protecting."

"What if I advance so far beyond the rest of you that I—" Hugh saw Ai smile and try to hold back laughter. "What is it?"

"You sound so much like Lore when you say that, except you say out of fear, not pride. That is so…" Ai looked for the right word. "Sweet" was not in her vocabulary, but that was how it struck her. "…Commendable."

"Alright, now, you're mocking me."

"Just engaging you in conversation. If you're so far ahead of the rest of them you might need the drone you made sure was so well adjusted to keep you company."

Hugh smiled and by the tone of his voice Ai could tell that he meant the exact opposite of what he said, "I should never have taken care of you."

"Because then you wouldn't have someone to turn to in a crisis?"

"No! Because then, I wouldn't have a rival!" he laughed. Hugh almost thought he could go back the regeneration alcove and rest now, but first he wanted to do something special, to make sure he didn't feel like he wasn't losing touch with the good aspects of his individuality.

"Ai? Would you care to go above ground and look at the stars with me?"

Outside of the building, which had served first as Lore's headquarters, and now the Cooperative's home, night had fallen. Ai and Hugh looked at the stars. They could shapes in the stars. Ai pointed to a cluster that looked like a Klingon holding a bat'leth. Hugh noted a group that looked like a six-limbed arthropod with a stinging tail.

"There's something about looking at the stars from a planet's surface that makes you feel small." Ai said.

Hugh thought about that for a moment. When he was a drone and connected to the rest of the collective with one mind he had known nothing else. When he was separated from the collective for the first time he had felt very small indeed. He had not had the skills to process that sensation, but now when he looked at the stars he could take comfort in the thought of being small. The galaxy could get along without the Collective. Maybe one day the Cooperative could get along without him? He slowly moved his hand into Ai's. Without realizing it, he started to gently squeeze. She squeezed back. They both realized what they were doing, let go and then looked at each other. They knew about the concept of romantic attraction from some of the ex-drones that had been assimilated as adults. They had never thought of their own relationship in those terms, but then why should they? They had no prior experience with this emotion.

"Did you feel the same way?" Hugh asked Ai.

"I do feel feelings for you that I did not know how to classify before today." Ai and Hugh walked toward each other, Hugh started to put his arms around Ai when someone somewhere initiated a transporter sequence. Hugh screamed. Ai looked on in horror. She let out a scream of her own but only after Hugh had disappeared.

When Hugh rematerialized, a figure he saw only out of the corner of his eye injected a hypospray into his neck and everything went black.

When Hugh awoke, he was in a dimly lit room. He was aware that he was on a table and that there were restraints on his wrists and ankles. He noted that the little bit of light there was was green in tint.

"Where am I?" Hugh said, noticing that his voice sounded slurred.

"Awake at last," he heard a voice say. "You know you were once quite a celebrity, until Seven of Nine came along."

Who was Seven of Nine?

"Now she's a celebrity, her husband's captain of the _USS Voyager._ Kidnapping her would attract too much attention. That's one thing my current employers are better at than my old ones—avoiding attention."

"Who are you?" Hugh asked.

"I'm something of a secret agent, with medical skills. I was formerly attached to the Obsidian Order but the Dominion destroyed them. Cardassia became unsafe for me. I requested political asylum on Earth and found a new employer. But I don't expect your out of the way cooperative to be up on recent Cardassian or Dominion History, or even the Federation's for that matter. Perhaps you'd be more interested in recent Borg History?"

Hugh turned his head and tried to see where the voice was coming from. There was a desk on the right side of the room. The figure seated there was veiled in shadow.

"Species 8352, Cardassian," Hugh said.

"We're still here. No longer a great power, but thanks to one Federation ship—even though we were never your main target—your loss by the way—the occasional Cardassian ship never has to worry about being assimilated again. The great irony is that _Voyager_ would have never been in the Delta Quadrant if they had not been chasing down a Maquis ship for us, the same year the Dominion destroyed the Obsidian Order. So in a way the galaxy owes the removal of the Borg to the Cardassians."

"What are you talking about!?" Hugh demanded.

The Cardassian stood up, still in the shadows, but not venturing outside them, he took a circuitous path to Hugh's left side. He was talking as he was moving.

"Captain, now Admiral Janeway, of the _USS Voyager_ infected the Borg Queen with a neurolytic pathogen that spread throughout the entire Collective, destroying all of the Unicomplex in the Delta Quadrant."

"There were trillions of drones there," Hugh said, almost regretfully.

"Leaving only disparate groups of Borg…" The Cardassian emerged from the shadows near Hugh's left shoulder. He had graying hair and a kind smile that only belied the mental torture games he was playing…"like you." He said that in as comforting a tone as comforting a tone as possible, but both knew that was not his intent.

"The Borg are not threatening anymore without the hive mind, but your nanoprobes are still a masterpiece of biotechnology."

Hugh noticed that the Cardassian held out a device that looked similar to a hypospray.

"My agency needs some nanoprobes, and we figured that with you as our hostage, your Cooperative would fall apart."

Hugh felt a small pinprick in his arm.

"What do you need my nanoprobes for?"

The Cardassian smiled, "They are one of two ingredients going into the ultimate weapon of biological warfare."

Hugh did not like the sound of this at all.

* * *

Two weeks later, Aamin Trepar, sitting comfortably at his desk, turned on his view screen. He was a Section 31 Agent and that gave him a certain degree of authority, especially over someone who was indebted to the Agency for getting their career back. Admiral Leyton appeared on the other end.

"What do _you _want?" He sneered.

"Now, now, Admiral the agency gave you back your career after your botched coup. I'd treat its members with a bit more respect."

"I'm indebted to Section 31, not you personally, Cardassian!"

Trepar chuckled. He enjoyed few things in life more than yanking Leyton's chain.

"I have replicated the treatment Dr. Crusher on Lieutenant Barclay which mutated the entire _Enterprise-D_ crew and enhanced it with Borg nanoprobes," Trepar said proudly. He refused to use the word "devolve" because that was not technically what the virus did. There were no arachnids or crustaceans in the human or Klingon evolutionary lines.

"I assume you've tested it?"

"Yes, on the Ferengi you sent me." There was the sound of a cage rattling in the background.

"The poor thing is almost cute now. I've replicated the cure that the android devised on _The Enterprise_, and the nanoprobes prevented the Ferengi's condition from being reversed. They also scanned my cells and the virus had no effect."

Leyton leaned back and folded his hands. "So we have a weapon that can mutate any species we program it to act on and leave everyone else unaffected." Leyton smiled.

"Wrong," Trepar said. "Section 31 has the weapon. If Starfleet knew of its existence they could come up with a way to counteract it. We must find a covert means of delivering it. The Voth Minister of Defense, Tal Haius, has called for a parlay with Starfleet in Romulan space. You are to select a ship, command it and beam contaminated material aboard as a peace offering. The crew of your ship is to know nothing about your true purposes."

"_The Titan_ under Captain Riker is scheduled to be near the Neutral Zone in a few days." Leyton resented the fact that there was still a Neutral Zone. Only a year ago there was talk on both sides of abolishing it. Then the Voth came. If it hadn't been for them, Romulus and the Federation would be allies now. As it was they were still cold warriors. There was even talk of an arms race—the Voth still in the Delta Quadrant had been developing transphasic torpedoes and ablative armor, and sending them on their ships to the Romulans. The Romulans had also announced that with Voth aid, they had developed slipstream drive. The flow of warbirds to the City ship and back was alarming. So was the travel of Voth ships to and from Romulus.

"Then, Admiral, I suggest that you take command."


	6. USS Titan 2381

**AN: I've changed my mind. If the issue comes up I'll present the Voth as ectotherms and be consistent with canon. They are wearing clothes with built in insulating systems, so I doubt it will come up.**

**USS Titan, Federation Side of the Neutral Zone, Beta Quadrant 2381**

Leyton rematerialized in the _Titan's_ transporter room. Captain Riker was their waiting for him. His wife, Lieutenant Commander Troi was also there. She was also the ship's counselor and diplomatic office. Also there was the executive officer, Commander Vale. Leyton was familiar with Riker and Troi's appearance, but he'd never met Vale before. She was just young enough to have recently acquired the rank of commander and had reddish-brown hair.

"Admiral, welcome aboard the _Titan_!" Riker said.

"Pleasure to be here, Will. Hopefully, after this negotiation, the Voth will never bother us again." Leyton was carrying a bag with a strap over his shoulder. He didn't touch it, or draw any attention to it, but that bag contained their ultimate weapon.

"Just to be clear on things, Will, you're still the captain, but I'm responsible for this mission's success. I expect to be able to take full command should the need arise. I hate keeping you in the dark, but I'm under orders not to reveal any more about my role in this mission than is necessary."

That didn't sit well with Riker. He grimaced. "Admiral, it's my understanding that we are on a peaceful mission."

Leyton half smiled. "So we are." He exited the room.

"I don't like it when we get orders that sound like that," Commander Vale said

"Neither do I," the captain said. "Deana?"

"He's definitely hiding something, and I feel a cold arrogance coming from him."

Riker told Vale, "Commander, take the bridge."

"Yes sir." She left the transporter room.

Deana knew what was coming next. She followed her husband and captain to their own quarters where they could discuss this situation freely. On some things, they had already agreed. The choice of Leyton to lead this mission for one: it had been a bad one. He was after all, the man who had been the most responsible toward derailing normal relations between the Voth and the Federation. When they got to their quarters, Will immediately began a tirade which he could not vent in front of his crew.

"Leyton, De? James Leyton? The man is an anti-reptilian xenophobe!"

"Hardly the type to engender confidence with a saurian race," Deana said as she sat across from Will at the black table in their quarters.

"Well, I'd hate to be him and need sickbay on this trip," Will said. The _Titan's_ chief medical officer, Dr. Ree was a Pahkwa-thanh. He looked like a diminutive T-Rex and had dietary requirements that meant the _Titan_ kept live animals on board.

"He blames the Cardassians for what happened to his son during our first war with them. And whether we like it or not they have been the most vocal reptilian species in the Quadrant until the Dominion War ended their status as a great power," Deana said.

"Funny, isn't it? None of our Bajoran crewmen see a Cardassian when they look at Dr. Ree."

**Voth Flagship, Romulan Space, Beta Quadrant 2381**

"So one-third of the Klingon fleet is hunting down Hirogen in the Delta Quadrant?" Sela asked from her comfortable seat in the conference room. She was there to ensure that the Federation resumed peace talks with Romulus should their issues with the Voth be settled peacefully, and lend military aid to the Voth should the Federation choose war.

Across from her sat Forra Gegen, the Voth's leading expert on Humanity. "It's a shame really. This will be the death-knell of the Hirogen Culture."

"You sound regretful," Sela said.

Gegan was regretful. The Hirogen were barbarians that hunted sentient lifeforms for prey, but Gegen hated to think of anyone being wiped out.

"All that's left of them are nomadic hunting parties that scour the Delta Quadrant for prey. All that's left that could survive this Klingon invasion would be the worlds where the females and juvenile males live. Tell me, do Klingons generally slaughter the populations of worlds that they conquer?"

"Not as a rule, but they do try to break the will of the inhabitants to fight back."

Then the Hirogen culture as the Delta Quadrant knew it was doomed indeed. And all so the Voth would have fewer enemies to fight in the Alpha Quadrant. Perhaps it was for the best. They might exist in servitude, but they would still exist, and be unable to hunt.

"You appear to be lost in thought," Sela said.

"I suppose I am. It's just that for more than twelve thousand years, the Voth and Hirogen have been mortal enemies. They conquered an empire that stretched across almost half the galaxy. We naturally didn't want to over-extend ourselves so we remained in the Delta Quadrant, though we had colonized virtually its entire outer edge."

Sela nodded. "And how did their empire fall?"

Gegen through up his hands and said, "I'm a paleontologist, not a historian, but its common knowledge in the Voth education system that they had troubles pacifying conquered species. One Hirogen scientist, who didn't believe in the inherent superiority of the Hirogen over all other life, did experiments to cybernetically link his mind to his alien staff and the galaxy has spent ten millennia dealing with Borg as a result. "

Sela arched her eyebrows, "Then their legacy has been felt to this day."

Gegen stroked his chin. "Perhaps that's why I'm so hesitant to see them fall." His thoughts turned back to the matter at hand. War or peace for this Quadrant depended on the next few hours. The humans were not so dispersed as the Hirogen and they still had two-thirds of the Klingon Empire to back them up. Even worse, the humans were not just faceless aliens: Gegen knew Captain Chakotay and considered him a friend. He knew that his own people's leaders were out for a territory grab: they wanted war. Still something else troubled him. The human admiral, James Leyton, had been extremely aggressive when the Voth had requested technological and cultural exchange. Were the humans' leaders just like the Ministry of Elders? Gegen hoped they would be smart enough not to give the Voth a pretext for war, but Leyton worried him. So did the whole concept of Section 31. A whole section of Starfleet Intelligence did not officially exist and yet almost got away with destroying the Dominion's Changeling leaders. It was only after Dr. Julian Bashir had made report of agent Luther Sloan's death that the Romulans found the Tal Shiar chairman to be a Section 31 mole. How far did their influence reach? Did they want a war as much as the Ministry did?

Veer entered the room and caught Sela and Gegen's attention.

"Admiral, Professor, we have made contact with the USS _Titan_."

* * *

The _Titan_ had made visual contact with the Voth flagship.

Admiral Leyton paced the bridge until the image of the Voth Defense Minister seated in the bridge of his ship filled the screen. Next to him stood a blond Human-Romulan hybrid that Riker and Troi recognized very well.

"So, Admiral Leyton, we meet again," Tal Haius said. "Let's hope our talks go more smoothly this time. I trust that Captain Riker knows the Romulan representative."

Riker and Sela glared at each other.

"Doesn't the host usually play a neutral role in negotiations? We're in Romulan space and a Romulan admiral is aboard the Voth ship," Riker commented.

"We are not merely hosts," Sela said, "We have a very real stake in these matters."

"Yes, we understand that the Voth have entered into a military alliance with you," Leyton said.

"A mutual defense treaty. When we discovered that _Voyager_ had brought back transphasic torpedoes and ablative shielding, we were sure that unless we entered a mutual defense pact with the Voth, the Federation could overrun us."

"That's the reason we refused to make a treaty with the Voth in the first place. A Voth-Federation alliance could be seen as a threat to Romulus," Leyton began to explain.

"Not if Romulus were included in that alliance," Sela responded.

"We realize that. Now if you could send delegates aboard our ship or allow us to beam—"

"No!" Troi screamed. Everyone on both bridges stared at her. She saw now what was going on. Leyton wanted to use the transporter for some reason. Something had to be brought back to the Voth flagship, and if she was reading his emotions correctly it would kill everyone onboard.

"De!" Will exclaimed and held her by the arms. "What's happening?"

"I'm sensing intentional deception by Admiral Leyton. He can't be allowed to send anything to the Voth ship."

"Can't be _allowed_? I'm in command of this mission counselor!"

"If you're finished with your bickering, I've just had a sensor sweep of your ship completed. Would you like to know what I found?" Haius asked.

"Enlighten us, Minister," Riker asked humorlessly.

Haius smiled. "In quarters that are presently unoccupied, I found a container holding Borg nanoprobes which in turn are attached to synthetic T-cells."

Sela stared at Haius, just realizing what they had narrowly avoided.

"I take it that those T-cell are carriers for Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome," Haius said.

"Captain, the Voth have just beamed something out of Admiral Leyton's quarters," Tuvok said. The former Security Chief of _Voyager_ was now the Tactical Officer of the _Titan._

Riker looked at Tuvok and then back to Haius.

"Don't worry about us, captain. It's in cold storage. If you're making a weapon out of it, we had best find a cure." Haius then looked to Sela, "Admiral, this is clearly an act of war by the Federation against the Voth… and it occurred in Romulan space. What say you?"

"I see the hand of Section 31 behind this. We know that they've used Starfleet Admirals to do their dirty work before and the Tal'Shiar has just recently dealt with its last known double agent. It will take time for the Senate to vote on going to war, but I can support you with my fleet right now."

"What fleet?" Leyton asked, before Haius cut the feed from his bridge, and an armada of Voth battle cruisers and Romulan warbirds decloaked.

"We are surrounded, Captain," Tuvok said.

"Lay in a course for the Federation and jump to slipstream!" And the _Titan_ was gone.

* * *

"Monsters! That's what we are!" Gegen shouted as he paced back and forth through Veer's quarters.

"I don't see how you can say that, professor," Veer said sitting in his chair. "The humans are the ones who were going to use the mutation virus on us and the Romulans."

Gegen stopped pacing and faced Veer. "I was including the humans when I said, 'we,' Veer. That crew looked just as shocked we were. And you can bet that we'll find some way to weaponize it too, now that we have the sample."

"The fact remains that it was the Federation government that created this thing—

"No!" Gegen said angrily. "It was a human doctor who tried activate a dormant gene in her patient's T-cells that created it, accidentally. This 'Section 31,' which can pretty much tell the government what do, made it a weapon." Gegen faced the door again and hung his head low.

"Odala basically told me that we're going to war with the humans when she told me I could renter the Circle of Archeology. The Ministry of Elders has been looking for an excuse for war and the Federation's leaders have given it one. I highly doubt that's what any of the people on that ship signed up for. I wonder if Earth will even be habitable when all this is over."

Veer was in no mood for his former mentor's moping. He stood up, confidently strode towards Gegen, gripped his shoulders and spun him around.

"Forra! Look at me!" He said, breaking Voth etiquette by referring to his former teacher by his first name. Gegen locked eyes with Veer.

"Not all humans are Chakotay. Maybe we can work something out for them when this is over, but the fact remains that we are at war. And both sides will do whatever it takes to win."

"Veer, may I sit in your chair for a moment?"

Veer nodded, and Gegen walked to the chair. Veer sat at his bedside.

"It's not just us and the humans this is about. The Klingon are systematically hunting down the Hirogen, old wounds between Romulus and Vulcan have been reopened, and it's all to give us an advantage in the war. This is truly a Galactic War. All we need now is to get the Dominion and Species 8472 to fight each other. What scares me the most Veer is not the war itself, but what the galaxy may look like when its over."

At that moment Tal Haius, member of the Minister of Elders, and the only member who could declare war as Minister of Defense, entered Veer's quarters.

"Professors, I have excellent news! At 15:00 Romulan Standard Time the Senate voted to declare war on the Federation and share armaments and strategies with the Voth Empire. The Gorn King made statements to the same effect. We are still waiting to hear from the Tholians, Breen, and Tzenkethi."

"So billions of lives will be needlessly lost. Forgive me if I don't share your enthusiasm," Gegen muttered with his chin resting on his fist.

"Those lives will be lost for the glory of the Empire!" Haius said.

"You will forgive me if I don't see that as sufficient excuse," Gegen said.

* * *

"Throwing an admiral in the brig? What has Starfleet come to when that is not only possible but the correct action to take?" Dr. Ree asked rhetorically as he studied his computer screen. There was a Borg-enhanced strain of Barclay's Protomorphosis out there, likely being turned into a biological weapon by the Voth and Romulans at this very moment.

"Leyton couldn't have acted alone. He doesn't have the skill with Borg nanoprobes or genetic re-sequencing to have made the virus," Captain Riker said.

"At the risk of sounding like Lt. Commander Tuvok, Section 31 is the logical culprit."

As important as the Captain's piecing this puzzle was, Rhee was a doctor, not a policeman…or a spy.

"Section 31 is undoubtedly involved, but Leyton had official orders to take command of the _Titan_. They have to have operatives in Starfleet Security, and, considering that Leyton is an Admiral, probably Starfleet Command too."

"With all due respect Captain, I'm a medical officer. You asked me to run simulations of what this Borg-enhanced strain of Barclay's could do. In an ideal situation we'd need a lab, Borg nanoprobes, and synthetic T-cells infected with the virus."

"We don't have those!"

"No, I'm doing my best programing a scenario on the computer where our bodies would be facing that!" Ree turned the screen to face Riker. He stood up, or rather got out of his chair, his anatomy preventing standing or sitting as a humanoid would understand them. "The treatment that Lt. Commander Data devised fails in every scenario!"

"And the Voth have a way of beaming through shields. All they'd have to do is program a canister to start spraying and it would be in our ventilation systems."

"And then I would be less concerned with treating my patients and more concerned with eating them."

"Time is still on our side. As shameful as it is, we're the ones who made this thing, and now Starfleet and Section 31 will be racing to make a cure before it gets used against us."

Ree sat back down and looked at the screen. "If Starfleet ever needed Seven of Nine, it's now."

"Well, we have her. Someone will run those tests you want, Doc."

Will had to commend his Chief Medical Officer for being most concerned with the area that would most directly involve him—but he suspected that there was more to it than that.

"There's something troubling you, Doc."

"Hmm. And here I thought Counselor Troi was the empath." Ree was silent for a moment, then said, "Captain, what was it like when you devolved?"

"Well, I'm human. I kept finding it harder and harder to concentrate until I had no higher mental functions left. I vaguely recalled intense pain which I later learned was Data shooting me with a phaser. I later woke up as a fully evolved human being in sick bay. I'm afraid you'd devolve more like Worf did."

"Into a savage predator driven only by the instincts to eat and mate."

"His first symptom was extreme irritability. He was one of the first to be infected but he held on to speech and at least some rational thought for a long time. That's partly why security couldn't track him down."

Ree felt a chill go down his spine. "I'm already a neurotoxin secretor who eats live meat. I making this a medical order: If we have to face this bioweapon and I begin behaving strangely, I want to be sedated and put into stasis immediately."


	7. The Trial of James Leyton

**Okay I goofed earlier. Janeway is a Vice-Admiral. Fleet Admiral is actually the highest rank. I have to credit a friend for coming up with the 31 Agent's dialogue in the first prison scene and for helping me arrange the trial.**

**San Francisco, California, North America, Earth, 2381**

For the second time in his life, James Leyton's career was in shambles. For the first time in his life, he'd gone to prison for it. He had just returned to his cell at Starfleet Security from exercising, the force field activating behind hiim. After his trial James knew that he would be sent to a more permanent prison in New Zealand. James walked to his cot, turned around, and then fell backward onto it. Now, for a few minutes, he could forget his present troubles and blame the people he felt to be responsible for his fall. Deana Troi was one.

_& #% that traitorous Betazoid!_

So, she sensed James's intentions? She still shouldn't have screamed and alerted both bridge crews. She had a duty to the Federation, and if that meant devolving Voth scum, then too bad. Her role as a counselor made her too soft. She wouldn't do was necessary to survive. She should have been reading the Voth Defense Minister's emotions. She would have found a galaxyview similar to James's own: there were no good guys or bad guys—just us and them, and we will both do anything to survive. James knew that they wanted Earth. It was, after all, the planet where they evolved. But humans had only been able to evolve because the Voth had left. That brought him to the second person he blamed—the Voth Minister of Defense.

That piece of reptilian filth was already capable of scanning the _Titan_ before Troi pointed out to him that nothing should be beamed to or from his ship. James should've suspected he had the technology to do that. Now the Voth had Section 31's doomsday weapon, and had probably by now finished modifying it to affect humans. James realized he couldn't really blame the Defense Minister for that. The Voth had been doing his job for his people. James would've done the same had their roles been reversed. The only two people left that he could blame were Trepar and himself—and for the same reason. They had not thought to do anything to mask the nanoprobes or the T-cells. They'd been fools. The Voth had been neighbors of the Borg for centuries, and they would know how to detect nanoprobes. Leyton had reason to question Trepar's loyalty to the Federation. He was, after all, a former agent of the Obsidian Order. James, however, had no excuses for his own failure to conceal the weapon.

"Lost in thought?"

Leyton looked up to see a man of East Asian descent, but British by accent approach his cell.

"You do not know me, but be assured I speak for the Section."

As Leyton struggled to think of something to say, the man raised his hand and said, "Admiral Leyton, I am sorry to hear of your involvement in the current difficulty with the Voth. I am sure as a loyal patriot you are going to accept full responsibility for this debacle. I am sure if you protest your innocence or suggest others were involved it would cause extreme distress and consequences for your lovely wife and no one would like to see that happen."

Leyton knew that Section 31 could carry out its threat. He would obey.

* * *

Three admirals sat in judgment over Leyton: Ross, Paris, and the most senior admiral in Starfleet, Alynna Nechayev. They sat at a rectangular table directly across from Leyton. Nechayev had the center seat, with a podium built in to the desk. Also present were the lawyers—a Vulcan prosecutor and a Bolian defense—and the witnesses: Captain Riker, Counselor Troi, and The _Titan's_ chief medical officer. A lizard. Leyton couldn't believe this. He did not care how many degrees in medicine this creature had, it couldn't understand the intricacies of Trepar's reprograming of the nanoprobes.

Nachayev banged her gavel.

"Fleet Admiral James Leyton, you are charged with inciting a war with the Voth and Romulans, the use of a Federation starship for terrorist activities, the possession of genomic weapons, and most seriously, conspiracy. How do you plead?"

The Bolian started to make a statement, but Leyton stopped him. The words of the agent played and replayed themselves in Leyton's mind.

"I'd like to speak for myself," Leyton said. Turning to the Admirals, Leyton said. "I plead guilty to all charges except one; I plead innocent to the charge of conspiracy!"

Everyone stared at Leyton. He knew that taking sole responsibility for this fiasco was going to be a hard sell. Before Nechayev or the Saurian doctor could say anything, Leyton stated, "You are probably asking how I could plead innocent to conspiracy when I lack the technical skills to engineer this tsrain of the virus. I had access to the nanoprobes and synthetic T-Cells from Starfleet Medical due to my influence as a Fleet Admiral. The scientists studying them were acting under my orders and did not know how I intended to use them."

The Vulcan prosecutor stepped forward and said, "Am I to take it, Admiral, that your medical scientists could not tell that they were engineering a genomic weapon?"

Leyton stared at the Vulcan. "I told them that the Voth DNA sample, they were coding the nanoprobes to infect, was a badly damaged human DNA sample that had been exposed to genomic weapons in the Dominion War. I told them another team would work on creating countermeasures to ensure the nanoprobes would restore the human DNA to its correct form. For security reasons I had to use different teams at different stages. Of course, I was lying. I really wanted a weapon that would revert the Voth into the dinosaurs they descended from."

"And why did they not find it strange that you were working on a defense for a weapon that has not been used in six years?"

"I'm an admiral; they seldom question their superiors, and I explained the Voth were very advanced and may have similar weapons."

Such questions flowed back and forth until Admiral Nachayev had to step in and ask the prosecutor to call his first witness.

"Admiral Leyton, we have recorded your pleas. By pleading guilty you have reduced the amount of time you will have to serve in correctional facilities on those accounts. However, you plead innocent to the charge of conspiracy. The prosecution believes there is enough evidence to convict you of this as well. If the prosecution will proceed…" Nechayev gestured to the prosecutor.

"Thank you, mam," he said to Nechayev. Then he looked to the witnesses. His eyes fell on Dr. Ree. "The prosecution calls Dr. Shenti Yisec Eres Ree to the stand."

Dr. Ree took his seat halfway down a horizontal line between Leyton and the admirals. Leyton did not like this. His fate could be in the hands of a lizard.

After Ree took his oath, the cross-examination begain.

"Dr. Ree, you spent days running simulations of Admiral Leyton's nanoprobes and synthetic T-cells carrying the intron virus. What was your analysis?"

Dr. Ree looked at Captain Riker before continuing.

"I analyzed it primarily as Voth weapon with the programming altered to effect non-Voth or non-Romulan targets. In each case the Voth genomic weapon could not be reversed."

The Vulcan stroked his chin. "Interesting. You say you studied it as a Voth weapon. In what respects would that have made it different from the weapon that Admiral Leyton devised."

"In the way it targeted its hosts. Barclay's Protomorphosis is normally a highly infectious disease that activates introns in the DNA of all the life forms it infects. For the Voth or their allies to use it would require them to program the nanoprobes with specific information to guide the virus away from their cells."

"What kind of information?"

"Namely the information that makes a Voth a Voth. All individuals belonging to a certain species share large percentages of their DNA in common. Actually only a small amount goes into making that individual an individual. This program recognized Voth markers in Voth DNA and left them unaffected. It would have a harder time distinguishing between Romulan and Vulcan DNA, but if it were fine-tuned enough it could make that distinction. Admiral Leyton's weapon was designed to work in much the same way, the chief difference being that Voth markers would activate rather than neutralize the virus."

"And from what can you make the conclusion that Admiral Leyton wanted this virus to be species specific?"

Ree looked back to Riker. The captain knew this part better than the chief medical officer.

"Admiral Leyton was expecting to meet the Voth Defense Minister and his entourage in the _Titan_'s conference room. He would not want to infect himself, the crew, or any Romulan delegates. If he were to convince trained geneticists that his weapon was really a treatment for damaged human DNA, the markers the nanoprobe would look for would be human not Voth. Anyone familiar with human DNA could tell the difference."

Ree broke eye contact with Riker.

"I submit that no one could program the nanoprobes without knowing either what to program them to attack or to protect. Given that Admiral would not want to risk infecting a Federation ship whose crew is only fifteen percent human, and the Admiral's statement that he was dealing with Voth DNA; I submit that whoever programed these nanoprobes had specific knowledge to program them to infect Voth cells. Hence Admiral Leyton could not have acted without a second party's knowledge."

"Thank you, Doctor." The Vulcan prosecutor returned to his seat. Now it was the Bolian defense attorney's turn. He had been making notes during the prosecutor's questioning, and now rose with a PADD in hand.

"Dr. Ree, is it true that Voth and humans share forty identical DNA markers?"

"Yes, that is true."

"So you do not purpose it is possible for a medical researcher to simply take the admiral at his word that this was a severely mutated human DNA sample?"

Ree swallowed. He was under oath to testify truthfully and while it was extremely improbable that such a mistake could be made, it was within the realm of possibility.

"It is possible that such a mistake could be made, but for a genomic weapon to leave a victim with only forty markers in common with an unaffected individual is extremely unlikely. Such weapons do not usually affect sex chromosomes. In Earth mammals the chromosome pair XY is male and XX is female. The Voth are known to have a ZW system of reproduction: ZZ is male, ZW is female. While there is nothing precluding the creation of such a weapon, there is no indication that any genomic weapon currently in use could convert an XY into a ZW. Scientists would need a large enough sample to predict what species they were dealing with. It remains possible that the sample did not include the sex chromosomes, but it would still have to contain enough information that the geneticist would be ninety- nine point nine percent sure that the sample was human. The only thing known to alter DNA to such an extent as to make Voth and human indistinguishable is Barclay's Protomorphosis itself."

"So you have just admitted that there is a way that the scientists could have been mistaken?"

Ree hung his head down. "True."

The defense attorney addressed the judges, "While your honors would probably know if such a weapon existed, it would not be clear for Starfleet Security to tell every doctor in the service?"

"We would keep it secret to protect the knowledge of it from falling into a third party's hands. I still think Leyton is guilty of conspiracy, but I have too much reasonable doubt to vote that way. I say 'Innocent,'" Admiral Ross said.

"I vote the same for the same reasons," Paris concurred.

Nechayev banged her gavel. "Admiral James Leyton, it is the judgment of this court that you be stripped of rank and sentenced to a correctional facility. If therapy fails you will be sentenced to thirty-four years in the New Zealand Rock Quaries."

Leyton let out a long sigh. This was the best he could've hoped for and he'd gotten it.

All eyes were on Leyton until Paris's commbadge beeped.

"This is Admiral Paris. What is it?"

A nervous male voice on the other said, "The Voth, sir. They've taken Xindi space."


End file.
